1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image sensor package, a method of manufacturing the same, and an image sensor module including the image sensor package, and more particularly, to an image sensor package which prevents itself from being contaminated by fine particles and can be made slimmer, a method of manufacturing the same, and an image sensor module including the image sensor package
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical electric devices such as semiconductor image sensors (for example, CMOS image sensors) are generally packaged so that they can be connected to high level packages such as large circuit assemblies. Image sensor packages serve several functions including facilitating electrical connection to large circuit assemblies, protecting an image sensor chip from the surrounding environment, and making light or another type of radiation pass through a sensing circuit disposed in the image sensor chip.
As the semiconductor industry grows, manufacturing companies are developing various packaging methods for manufacturing smaller and more reliable semiconductor components. In particular, in a market where miniaturization and slimness are required such as camera phones, Chip On Board (COB), Chip On Film (COF), Chip Size Package (CSP), and similar technologies are widely used.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional diagram of an image sensor module packaged by a conventional Chip On Board (COB) method. The COB formed image sensor module illustrated in FIG. 1 includes an image sensor chip 10, a PCB 20 on which the image sensor chip 10 is mounted, a lens unit 30 disposed on the PCB 20 on which the image sensor chip 10 is installed, and a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) 40 through which the PCB 20 is connected. The lens unit 30 consists of a lens 32, an infrared ray blocking film 36, and a housing 34, wherein the lens 32 concentrates light into an Active Pixel Sensor (APS) 12 of the image sensor chip 10 and the infrared ray blocking film 36 blocks infrared rays from light that is incident to the image sensor chip 10.
In the COB formed image sensor module of FIG. 1, the PCB 20 and the rear surface of the image sensor chip 10 are adhered using a die adhesive 22 and then input/output electrodes of the image sensor chip 10 are connected with the electrode of the PCB 20 using a bonding wire 24. Since this method is similar to a semiconductor manufacturing process, productivity improves. However, as a space for wire bonding is needed, the size of the image sensor module increases, and as the height of the bonding wire 24 and the space for the infrared ray blocking film 36 are increased, the height of the image sensor module also increases.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional diagram of an image sensor module packaged by a conventional Chip On Film (COF) method. In the COF image sensor module illustrated in FIG. 2, the image sensor chip 10 is bonded to a flexible PCB or a flexible printed circuit (FPC) 42 using an Anisotropic Conductive Film (ACF) 23. In this case, bonding wires are not used so as to reduce the width and height of a lens unit 31 and thus a miniaturized and slim image sensor module can be manufactured. However, in order to transmit light to the APS 12 of the image sensor chip 10, a hole at least as wide as the width of the APS 12 should be bored in the flexible PCB or the FPC 42. In this case, the image sensor chin 10 may be contaminated by fine particles originating from the cut part of the FPC 42. In addition, an alignment of the bored flexible PCB or the FPC 42, the image sensor chip 10, and the ACF 23 may be difficult.
As described above, conventional methods of packaging image sensor chips suffer from several drawbacks including large package height, fine particle contamination, and difficult alignment during manufacturing. The present invention addresses these and other disadvantages of the conventional methods.